Susan's Blog  
(Occasional comments by Susan Seitel)

"Unmanageable stress levels in the workplace can seriously impact an employee’s productivity and home-life," said Rosemary Haefner, CareerBuilder VP. She advises workers to ask for flexibility, and if they can't get it, to try these tips:

• Learn to say no. Reduce your commitments both at work and home. Manage timeline expectations for customer or colleagues when multiple projects come up simultaneously.
   
• Get organized. Create a checklist of things that need to be addressed for that day and focus on those tasks only.
   
• Reevaluate your goals with your boss or supervisor to identify priorities and where your energy should be focused.
   
• Get plenty of rest, eat a healthy diet and remember to exercise. Working out can significantly reduce stress levels.
   
• Finally, give yourself a break. This means taking your vacation days, no matter how important you job is, and taking little breaks every day to re-group, re-energize and unwind. Stepping away from your desk and taking a 15-minute walk during the workday can do wonders.

We'd like to add one thing to the list. Remember work redesign? Way back in the '90s it was invented by a wonderful group of workplace researchers led by Lotte Bailyn. The idea is to get your team together and have each member list all the tasks with which they are charged. Then you compare tasks, looking for duplicative or low-value work, tasks you can get rid of. Even if you don't find any, the worst that will happen is you'll find out what everyone else is doing and maybe create a little team camaraderie. Happy Labor Day!

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August 19, 2008

A little left-over news

We only have so much room in the Newsbrief each month, and there's so much news to digest that it's always a tough choice. Our litmus test is always "could this news make a difference for anyone?" We're about ready to go to press with the September issue, and this month in particular there was a ton of news left over. We could make the Newsbrief more than 12 pages, but then it would hardly be brief. So instead, here are some of the news items we couldn't squeeze in:

Asked to name the one benefit program that would enable them to be more productive at work, 63% of the 1,500 or so employees who responded to a LifeCare poll said a flexible work schedule. The rest of the options – enhanced wellness and health program, childcare or eldercare assistance, stress management or time management programs – got 10% or fewer votes.

This probably won't be news to you, but the wage gap is widening, says BusinessWeek (7-14/21-08). In 2006 the average person in the top 1% bracket made $2.1 million, 77 times as much as the average person in the bottom 90%. It took that top earner just three days and three hours to make what the other person earned all year. In 1979 it would have taken 12 days.

U.S. payrolls are shrinking, says the July employment report. And a substantial number of those who lose their jobs won't get unemployment benefits. Only 37% of the country's unemployed got benefits in 2007, down from 44% in 2001 (and 55% in 1958). The Wall Street Journal, 7-29-08.

A global study, The State of Employee Engagement 2008, by BlessingWhite, looked at workplace attitudes among three generations and found that at least one-fourth of Gen Y employees are disengaged in all geographic regions except India. Southeast Asia had the greatest portion of disengaged Gen Y workers, with 35%.

Fewer than half of us recycle at the office, says a Harris Interactive and Randstad USA poll. (BusinessWeek, 8-11-08)

And finally, whether you're the recipient or the provider, you probably don't need reminding that some minimum wage workers got a raise this summer, from $5.85 to $6.55 per hour.

In case you haven't seen the Newsbrief lately, here's a sample.

August 11, 2008

Are they making this up or what?

Are you ready to think a thought and have your computer get it? The August 11 issue of Business Week has a column by Cliff Edwards, their tech blogger, about a new startup company called Emotiv Systems that has spent the last five years researching the possibility of a mind-reading headset. The result is the Epoc, which will sell for $299 and will be ready, they say, to ship late this year. Anne, our younger and more cynical colleague, suspects it of being a late April Fools Day joke.

Called the Emotiv, it's a headset with sensors that attach to your scalp (the photo shows it on a bald guy, but maybe it works for people with hair as well). It uses the same technology used by the electroencephalogram used to read the brain's signals. Supposedly it eavesdrops on your thoughts and translates the appropriate ones into computer instructions, enabling you to play a game or arrange photos without using your hands or speaking words.

it comes with a fantasy game that includes practice exercises that tune it to your unique thought processes. Says Edwards, "When I tried it out, the headset performed perfectly. In one of the training sequences, I had to imagine a cube and then will it to disappear. After a little practice, I was able to cause a cube on the computer screen to wink in and out of existence just by thinking of it."

I'm someone who looks up with amazement every time a plane flies by. I still have no clue how my computer can copy and print a 10-page study in seconds. This is a little too much.

August 8, 2008

If we think we've got it bad . . .

An article by Financial Times columnist Clive Crook is headed, Only luck can save America's economy, and we've heard a few people compare today's recessionary economic times to the Great Depression.

Just in case that thought has crossed your mind, an article in American History magazine entitled "15 Minutes that Saved America" is about how Franklin Delano Roosevelt saved the nation when he became its president. It includes this description of the situation when FDR took over. 

"The stock market crash of 1929 had presaged the implosion of the American economy. Industrial production had fallen by half; industrial construction by nine-tenths. The steel industry, long a mainstay of America's might, was staggering along at barely 10% of capacity. Unemployment topped 12 million, and even this figure understated the problem, for it ignored those too discouraged to continue seeking work. Commodity prices had collapsed, forcing farmers to struggle ever harder to make ends meet, until the prices fell so far that the farmers couldn't afford to harvest their wheat and corn, and let it rot in the fields."

"Hundreds of thousands of families lost their homes; as many as 2 million men, women and children wandered the highways of America seeking shelter. Homeless communities, called Hoovervilles in derision of the Republican president, sprang up in cities all across the country. . . Hunger stalked the land. . . Five thousand banks had folded by the time Roosevelt took office, and perhaps 10 million Americans had lost their savings."

Reading the whole article (October, 2008, pg. 34) should take care of any comparisons. (Sorry - we couldn't find it online, but you can subscribe here.)

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